The building, with seven interconnected hexagons, glass cupolas and a pair of curved staircases, contains one of the most important pre-Raphaelite collections in the western hemisphere. The museum houses more than 1, paintings and sculptures, including the finest collection of European works in the Caribbean, such as works by Velasquez, Van Dyck, Reubens, Rodin, Delacroix and Gainsborough.
Many important Puerto Rican pieces are included in the collection, some Inca pottery and even Thai pieces. The museum also offers exhibits by contemporary Puerto Rican artists.
Open daily 10am - 5pm. Casa Paoli located in Ponce houses exhibits on the singer's life as well as a shop displaying colorful papier-mache masks used in Ponce's annual Carnival celebrations. Mon-Fri 10am-noon, pm, Today, the House of the Ponce Massacre was build in recognition of one of the bloodiest events in Puerto Rico's political history. On March 21, , a group of Nationalists, who were denied a permit to hold a demonstration, dressed in black shirts and assembled before this building.
As they marched to the tune of the Puerto Rican national anthem, a shot was fired--the origin of which was never determined. An exchange of gunfire ensued between the marchers and police. Twenty people were killed and hundreds injured.
The pier here is the departure point for a regularly scheduled weekend ferry to Caja de Muertos Coffin Island or Dead Box Island , a small island of pristine beaches, an old lighthouse built in and a marked snorkel trail under construction. The island is approximately 2. The island has no permanent inhabitants.
Ferry services: Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 9am and return to 5pm. For a incredible view of how the mountains meet the sea at Ponce, drive to the summit of El Vigia Hill , where scouts once scanned for attacking ships.
Built in , the cross is a memorial to the Spanish garrison established atop of the hill to watch for smugglers' ships attempting to unload contraband on the southern coastline of Puerto Rico back in The Castillo Serralles Serralles Castle located near to El Vigia Hill, is a lovely landscaped former residence of the most powerful rum-producing families, the Serralles family, producers of Don Q rum.
The Serralles Castle is a magnificent example of Spanish Revival architecture, popular in the 's; indoor patio with fountains, beautiful formal gardens paralleling the style of the house, well-manicured flame of jungle plants growing in a pattern that matches the ironwork on the house. It was designed by architect Pedro de Castro and was completed in the early 's. Today stands as museum dedicated to the history of the sugar and rum industries.
Open Tue-Thr am-5pm; Fri-Sun ampm. Closed on Mondays. Free transportation from Plaza Las Delicias de Ponce via trolley. Call for group reservations, Nearby is the Tibes Indian Ceremonial Center discovered in after hurricane rains uncovered pottery and only a small portion has so far been excavated. This site is home of the oldest cemetery uncovered up to date in the Antilles, with skeletons unearthed from A.
It is also considered the largest and the most important archaeological finds in the West Indies. This archeological discovery affirms that the Igneri Indians pre-Taino did not completely disappear without leaving traces of their existence other than samples of ceramic pottery.
At Tibes, there is proof that the Igneris were farmers, fishermen, and hunters of birds and small animals. Since April 30, , the site opened its doors to the public. Today, it is a popular a tourist attraction, featuring seven bateyes ball fields , some carved with petroglyphs, said to have been used for a soccer like game.
On one of two dance grounds, stones line up with the sun during the equinox and solstice, making Tibes a pre-Columbian astronomical observatory. Open Tue-Sun am-4pm. Soon after, the musuem opened its doors in and it was the first museum in Puerto Rico totally devoted to the history of the people of a city, displaying documents, objects and relics related to the historical development of the city.
Located at 53 Calle Isabel. The Museo Casa Wiechers-Villaronga a house designed by famous architect Alfredo Wiechers for his own family in the early 20th century, contains the original furniture and architectural details traditional in Ponce urban homes.
Recently restored by the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena. Open Wed-Sunday, 8ampm, In the first years of the colonization, along the riviera of the Jacaguas river, the first Spanish families populated the area that today occupies the Independent Municipality of Ponce. Later, in , they erected a small hermitage under the protection of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Around this same period the town was developed, officially recognized in During the course of the eighteenth century and first half of the nineteenth century, Ponce experienced changes that were preparing it for the directive role that the population would take on from second half of the nineteenth century. From that time the population was growing, thus expanding its urban contour; progress that occurred in spite of the catastrophes fires, storms, tremors and others that to a certain extent prevented it.
Another occurrence of significance at the time was the establishment of the first sugar cane mills in the region. This factor was the base for the conversion of Ponce in an economic center of great importance in the southern region.
This flourishing activity was in headed by a foreign landowner class, that by means of the slavery system converted the fertile grounds of Ponce into the main agricultural center of the country.
Evidence of that economic development was always the well remembered Ponce Exhibition Fair of , where the agricultural and industrial advances of Ponce and Puerto Rico were displayed.
Today we have left from that period the Pavilion that today lodges the Fire House Museum. In contrast to the living conditions that reigned in the island, Ponce emerged from town to villa and from villa to city , until becoming what the historians of the country distinguished as the turn-of-the-century Alternative Capital of Puerto Rico. During the second half of XIX century Ponce had become a progressive city-the economic, cultural and intellectual center of the south; some assert it was that center of the country.
The main political figures of the country would congregate here to direct the changes that the colony demanded: assimilation, autonomy or separation. In the cultural scope, music, theater, opera, literary movements and journalism found in Ponce important means of expression. At the end of XIX century, Ponce was a mosaic of diverse groups: Creoles, peninsulars, blacks, mulattos and other non-Hispanic European immigrants.
On the other hand, its urban contour reflected the diversity of its citizens. It was the union of the human and physical element which gave Ponce its own profile that distinguished it from the rest of Puerto Rico; and which gave it its alternative character in contrast with the capital, San Juan. Evidence of that economic development was always the well remembered Ponce Exhibition Fair of , where the agricultural and industrial advances of Ponce and Puerto Rico were exposed; and we have still have left the Pavilion that today lodges the Fire House Museum.
As opposed to the conditions of life that reigned in the Island, Ponce emerged from town to villa and from villa to city , until becoming which the historians of the country distinguished Ponce as the turn-of-the-century Alternating Capital of Puerto Rico. But in Ponce it sometimes seems that the greatest and only hope is to shape a more secure future by reclaiming the best of its past. Ponce Creole is the name given to the architectural style that belongs only here.
San Juan, the capital, was planned and built by the Spanish conquerors, one writer points out, while Ponce is the work of its native sons, making it a truly authentic Puerto Rican city. At its heart is the vibrant Plaza las Delicias Plaza of Delights , actually two tree-shaded squares anchored by a domed eighteenth-century cathedral.
The wood and stucco buildings that line the streets radiating from the plaza are painted in the tasty pinks, peaches, and limes common to hot countries.
With broad columned porches and balconies, the effect is entirely inviting and of a piece. And there are many pieces. The prime restoration area contains 1, buildings. I took a stroll around the central city with a tourist-office representative named Zulma Collazo. She pointed to freshly paved sidewalks that have regained the pink marble borders common a hundred years ago and to replica gas lamps that have replaced unsightly telephone and electrical lines that used to run aboveground.
Also there is the island-wide effort for the Columbus Quincentennial. Puerto Rico, after all, is the only place under the American flag where the explorer set foot, albeit briefly and during his second voyage. In , in an unusual swap, the fortified settlement on the eastern side was renamed San Juan, and its former name, meaning Port of Riches, was extended to the entire island, now called Puerto Rico.
Not for long. This is the oldest-known and best-preserved burial ground in the Antilles.
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